Old and new legends at Lorne

My aunty Moon will be competing in the 40^th year of the Lorne Pier to Pub swim, held annually every January. A competitive swimmer all her life, she was the State champion in 400 and 800m freestyle and this will be her 21^st consecutive Lorne Pier to Pub swim.  Although the Pier to Pub swim event was established in 1980, the pier itself dates back to 1879 and the pub, the Lorne Hotel, was first opened to the public in January 1876. The Meagher family’s history also dates back well before Moon started swimming the Pier to Pub, her grandfather and uncle had quite a bit to say about that very pub over a hundred years ago.

Lorne Hotel postcard c.1900-1909 SLV
H87.206/21

The family archives are particularly rich in detail around the period of 1910 – 1919 when my grandfather’s brother, Frank Meagher, kept his wartime correspondence with their father, John S Meagher. The first indication of the family holidaying at Lorne is mentioned in a letter written on 24 October 1918, when Frank wrote, ‘I wonder, will you be going to Lorne again this year?’ By the time Frank’s letters arrived in Melbourne almost two months later, the family were already at Hotel Lorne and John received a bundle of letters redirected from Hawthorn.

J S Meagher’s mail redirected from Hawthorn to Lorne December 1918

On New Years Day 1919, John wrote:

My dear Frankie,

I have three letters of yours to acknowledge in Oct 19 & 24, both from France, and Oct 30 from Wandsworth.  We reached here on Dec 20, shortly had we got off the coach when Miss Leydin said gleefully she had a letter from you, which came very seasonably and which she much valued – There is, I think, a good deal of ____  about Miss Leydin. I had to complain to her about the room she gave me. It is next to the office wherat in the still hours of the morning, callow youths led on by Old Tony and Les Hume soak themselves in alcoholic poison much to Miss Leydin’s financial benefit, but more to the detriment of my sleep because these youths snort & roar & groan & chuckle & make all sorts of obscene noises what time they are the influence of this abominable poison & the noise of these beastly bellowings reach into my room much to my indignation etc.

As referred to in this Christmas post John S Meagher’s ideal punishment for the noisy patrons at the Lorne Hotel took on a rather colourful description. He followed up the letter ten days later, still unhappy about the situation, having endured the ruckus for three weeks. His complaints about the lack of hotel amenities and comparisons with the former proprietress, Mrs Umhauer, who managed the Hotel from 1916 to 1918, retains the bitterness of his New Years Day letter.

Lorne Hotel etc from back of the Post Office. Photograph by Mark James Daniel
Easter 1906 SLV H92.200/696

Letter from John S Meagher to Frank Meagher

10 January 1919

My dear Frank,

We are, I’m glad to say, leaving this wretched joint tomorrow. This place – the hotel – may be well enough for what the publican euphemistically calls “good spenders” and those who are at once destroying their constitution & filling Miss Leydin’s purse at the same time. Many of these beings remain up till 1am or even later & they start before breakfast. They murmur apologetically ”Oh it’s holiday time”. It’s a damned rotten business this pubkeeping especially as it is run at this hotel. Lux is quite right in his extreme views. There’s no smoking room now, the former one is used as a bedroom, if there’s a dance on the drawing room cannot be used and if theres a_____ people are driven into their bedroom. I was put in the room next the office and am kept awake by the noises and riot of the bibulous next door. Complaint and Miss. L brought forward the reply in slightly more polite terms “Lump it or Leave it”.  The management is, in my opinion, a long way behind Mrs [Umhauer?].

The remainder of the letter is no longer extant, but Frank’s response dated 15 March 1919 provides a hint of the missing content and his delight at John’s testy outburst.

Letter from Frank Meagher to John S Meagher

15 March 1919

My Dear Old Pup,

Some days since, the mail bought an interesting budget, including several from you at Lorne. … Your letters Pate, when you let yourself go, are a joy forever. Your little effort about the youths at Lorne, who deserved to be “snitcher-smitten with an aromatic and nutty pig’s pluck”, was distinctly good.  Well can I picture the dismay, nay, the stupefaction, depicted on each vapid countenance as the vinous mouthings and bibulous obscenities of one of their number were sawn off short by the squelching impact of an over-ripe pig’s pluck.

I’m sorry that such conduct should have interfered with the pleasure of your holiday but such things will be until the dawn and indeed the set of that Arcadia which Lux practises and you preach. Miss Leydin’s attitude, whilst admittedly not divine, is certainly very human, and, in all honesty, one can hardly cavil at it.  … Your outlook, as you wrote on Jan 10, has given me a tinge of home-sickness. “The breakers in the cove, and the long wash of the Pacific breaking on the beach”.  And your last little sentence touched me deeply  “And I would that you were with us”

Lorne from the Pier by The Rose Series SLV H32492/1191

Frank’s recap of John’s outlook gives us a picture of the beach at Lorne, the swells in which my aunt Moon will be swimming. She’ll be battling it out in the Legends category over the 1.2km Pier to Pub swim. Old Tony and Les Hume won’t be around to ensure that the celebrations of the Pier to Pub include beastly bellowings and callow youths, but certainly a toast to Moon’s belligerent grandfather and the feisty Miss Leydin wouldn’t go astray to help remember and celebrate the historical and contemporary layers that can be found at the old bedrock of Hotel Lorne.

Grand Pacific Hotel and the Pier Lorne SLV H32492/3026

Postscript: Miss Leydin was the manager of the Grand Pacific Hotel prior to taking on the lease at Hotel Lorne in 1918.